PRECINCT 3: All three on to November

A tie for second in Precinct 3 means all candidates move on to the Nov. 8 general election.

Hersey on top; Munafo, Richardson tie

A tie for second in Precinct 3 means all candidates move on to the Nov. 8 general election.

Attorney Michael Hersey was the clear winner with 89 votes, followed by incumbent Jim Munafo Jr. and Ryan Richardson, each with 52 votes.

"I think it says a lot about why there shouldn't be preliminaries in town council elections," Hersey said shortly after the results.

In 2007, and with the same vote count of 89, Hersey came in third for the same Precinct 3 seat.

Looking at the results from his higher vote vantage point, Hersey said, "Ryan Richardson is not the pushover people think," Hersey said. "And I think Jim Munafo's days are over.

Munafo isn't so sure.

Munafo noted that he came in second in the 2007 preliminary election by about the same margin.

"As you can see that can be made up," he said. "I like our chances going forward."

Despite the tie, Munafo is still a believer in holding on to preliminary elections.

He's not so sure that the preliminary turnout and results can be seen as a referendum on the shortening of the town manager's contract, which he supported.

"Ultimately you have to look at it in the end, and in the end, I'm still here," Munafo said. "I don't think it was as powerful a factor as some might suspect.

An upbeat Richardson plans to get out into the precinct.

"It showed me that I really have a chance," Richardson said, who plans to up his profile with voters in the coming weeks. "I'll be going out and meeting more voters than anyone would think is possible."

It is the second time in as many preliminaries that a tie for last placed all candidates on the ballot. In 2009's five-way race for four school committee ballot slots, the bottom two tied.

Voter turnout was judged not bad for a preliminary election, with 194, or 9 percent, of the precinct's 2,038 voters making it to the Barnstable Senior Center. There were no blanks.

With the final race for the Nov. 8 election set, ballots will be ordered later this week. It is the first time in many town election cycles with races for every town council precinct and a five-way race for three seats on the Barnstable School Committee.